BlackFacts Details

Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative 424 (2008)

Title

A Constitutional amendment to prohibit the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education or public contracting; to apply the amendment only to action after the amendment’s effective date; to allow bona fide qualifications based on sex that are reasonably necessary; to exempt any court order or consent decree that is in force as of the effective date of this amendment; to provide an exception for certain federal programs; to define state for purposes of the amendment; to provide for remedies; to make the amendment self-executing; to make provision in the event of conflict with federal law or the United States Constitution; and to provide for severability.

Text of Measure

Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska that, Article I of the Constitution of Nebraska be amended by adding a Section 30 as follows:

(1) The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

(2) This section shall apply only to action taken after the section’s effective date.

(3) Nothing in this section prohibits bona fide qualifications based on sex that are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

(4) Nothing in this section shall invalidate any court order or consent decree that is in force as of the effective date of this section.

(5) Nothing in this section prohibits action that must be taken to establish or maintain eligibility for any federal program, if ineligibility would result in a loss of federal funds to the state.

(6) For purposes of this section, state shall include, but not be limited to: (a) the State of Nebraska; (b) any agency, department, office, board, commission, committee, division, unit, branch,